Adaora “Flash”

Adaora Eze announced herself the way she does everything: at full speed. In her first junior sprint she false-started twice, won anyway, and apologised to nobody. The crowd named her Flash before she crossed the line; the Bureau of Egg Statistics, which also times the races, simply wrote 'see nickname' in the margin.

Her defining afternoon came at the Perch Jumping Final, when rain stopped play with the bar at a record height and the whole Republic sheltering under the eaves. When the rain eased she declined the offered postponement, 'the perch is already wet; so am I', cleared it on the first attempt, and broke her own record for good measure. The roar was heard in the farmhouse.

Breaking Minister Quickfoot's 100-metre record made their rivalry official; running a joint sprint clinic for chicks made it beloved. She has stated her ambition to be Minister of Sports 'once there is a second field to be minister of,' a sentence the current minister has described as 'hurtful, accurate, and noted.'

She has quietly taken Chi-Chi into the junior squad and denies being soft about it. 'The quiet ones,' she says, 'have the best starts. Nothing to prove, everything to run for.'